Tasting Notes: double droppers

Butterscotch: that's the most intriguing word you see attached to most discussions of the age-old 'double drop' fermenting system. According to the received wisdom, butterscotch notes are what you get get when you allow the wort to ferment in one tank for 16 to 24 hours before dropping it, quite literally, from one fermentation vessel down to another below, making use of the marvellous properties of gravity. The beer then spends another day or two in the second fermenter and the result is double dropped beer. By doing so you achieve a couple of things: you lose some of the yeast (the stuff that settled at the bottom of the top tank) and you add a lot of oxygen into the mix - and it's this oxidised diacetyl in the beer that gives the distinctive butterscotch flavours.
Double drop brewing is a very old and traditonal method but has largely been abandoned, no doubt at least partly to avoid the extra costs that come with two sets of fermentation vessels instead of just one. Back in the early 20th century it was the most popular method of clearing English ales but them days are long gone.
A few breweries persist in the practice however, or something similar to it, including Brakspear and Marston's, whose ales are on the menu this outing: Brakspear Bitter and Marston's Double Drop.
Technically, Marston's use the famed 'Burton Union' system, a very particular version of double drop brewing based on a mammoth network of interlinked Victorian kit including oak casks, pipes and troughs that's absolutely worth making time in your life to go and see. Think Willy Wonka on beer. An awe-inspiring bit of British eccentricity that makes you proud to drink beer.
And yes, I'm aware that Refresh UK (the company that produces the Brakspear range) is part of Marstons plc, the humungous outfit that produces a raft of ales in Burton Upon Trent and elsewhere, so we're really looking at two parts of the same company but the bulk of the kit (and the yeast strain) used to produce Brakspear's version is the original pre-Marston's-takeover kit and that's good enough for me.
[An abbreviated history of how that came about: in 2002 the Brakspear Brewing Company sells its Henley brewery site to a developer and sells the brewing kit to Refresh who break it down, move it to the Wychwood Brewery in Witney in Oxfordshire which it already owns, rebuilds it and normal service is resumed. Critically, they remember to take the Henley yeast strain with them and still to this day use the very same Maris Otter malts and Fuggles and Goldings hops. A fairly serious and not inexpensive attempt to retain authenticity. We like that.]
Interestingly, the science is very far from clear on the merits or otherwise of double drop brewing, but that's probably why it's such an endearingly madcap British concept. But how do the beers themselves stack up? Well, try as I might I couldn't find them darned butterscotch notes....

TASTING NOTES, AFTER A FASHION:
Marston's Double Drop, Marston Thompson & Evershed plc, bitter, 4% abv, Morrisons, £1.75
A straw gold with a short-lived head, it's nice and clear and bright, though several degrees lighter and a good deal less pretty in the glass than the Brakspear offering. The most noticeable aspect of the nose is how dry it comes across. A little malt discernible if you sniff hard and a lot more hops but the dryness is aggressive and comes in big waves after you give the glass a good swirl. Maybe a touch of creaminess? In the mouth it's lots more hops with quite a fierce, dry bitterness. Some sweetness lurks underneath if you go in search of it. Feels quite light in the mouth, even for a 4% ale. The finish is predictably dry but not a lot else going on. Not my bag, I'm afraid.
Score: 2.5 / 5

Brakspear Bitter, Brakspear Brewing Co, bitter, 3.4% abv, Morrisons, £1.75
Glorious, deep amber in the glass, Brakspear's double dropped ale is a beautiful, bright and lively beer that also gives your nose much more to work with. There's a lot more sweet maltiness in there with maybe some restrained Xmas cake notes - raisins and sultanas mainly. The dryness is still there but it's not quite as gobsmacking. Taste-wise, there's the most delicious, subtle sweetness up front with more sultana notes that slowly, teasingly give way to a very powerful dry bitterness, but one that works much more in harmony with the rest of the flavours present, rather than battering them into submission. The finish is similarly more balanced and less aggressive than in the Marston's and it slowly and happily tapers away to leave just a hint of hoppy, malty perfume on the breath. A really well created brew - and not the sort of thing that normally appeals to me - but a lovely beer with so much going on and lovely body, remarkable for a brew coming in at just 3.4% abv.
Score: 3.5 / 5

http://www.marstons.co.uk/brands/marstonsbeercompany.asp
http://www.brakspear.co.uk/our_beer/